From Director's Desk
The Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture (DKMA), the erstwhile Publications and Information Division (P&I Division), was created along with the establishment of ICAR (the then Imperial Council of Agricultural Research) in the year 1929. The main aim was to compile agricultural information and publish it in the print media for building the capacities of various stakeholders in the agricultural sector. With the passing of time and on the basis of requirement, it was upgraded to Directorate of Information and Publication in Agriculture (DIPA) and subsequently it was further upgraded as Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture (DKMA) vide office order No. F.No. 3-1/2010-GAS (DIPA) dated 27 January 2011. Such changes in the nomenclature and mandate of DKMA were made based on agri-information requirements and the changes in knowledge processing, compiling, and publishing for its dissemination and linking even the last mile in information network. The existence of such a powerful process of knowledge generation and dissemination help promoting intellectual capacity of stakeholders; enhancing wisdom thereby utilization of up-to-date knowledge and modern technologies for benefit of agriculture sector.
In 1906, the then Inspector General of Agriculture was the Editor of The Agriculture Journal of India and the Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India, published by the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa.These journals are the predecessors of the modern ICAR Journals, and provided a permanent record under one cover the practical results of agricultural research work throughout the India. In 1931, the Indian Journal of Agricultural Science, and The Indian Journal of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry were started to encourage exchange of ideas among workers engaged in research in these fields. The Council renamed The Agricultural Journal of India as Agriculture and Livestock in India in 1931. F.M. de Mello, the Editor of the Journal, gave it a popular slant and with this change in approach the journal was given the name of Indian Farming in 1940. After Independence, the need was felt for a journal in Hindi to promote scientific farming among the Indian Farmers that gave birth to Kheti in 1948. In 1956 a new quarterly journal, Indian Horticulture was started to promote latest scientific promotion on fruit, flower, and vegetable cultivation. Later with the same aim Phal-Phool (quarterly) was started in Hindi. Later frequency of these journals became bimonthly because of the high inflow of more and more scientific articles. To enhance public awareness about the activities of ICAR this Directorate started ICAR Reporter and ICAR News.
The DKMA functions with a clear vision to manage knowledge for enhancing wisdom of agricultural sector in india. The mission is to develop and disseminate useful agricultural knowledge being generated through research, education and extension using print, mass media, social media and e-knowledge resources up to the last mile across the globe for enhancing production and productivity in agriculture. The objectives set for DKMA are to collate, compile, publish and disseminate useful agricultural knowledge; plan and coordinate the dissemination of agricultural information at national and international levels; manage information repository and act as custodian of agricultural knowledge through print and emerging media of information and communication; act as a knowledge centre and clearing-house for information relating to research for development in agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and allied sciences including home sciences using state-of-the art information and communication technologies and provide literature for strengthening and promoting research, education and extension.
The monthly research journals, Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences and Indian Journal of Animal Sciences made available in open-access mode and are regularly published from last 93 years. The portal has archives pertaining to Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences (304 issues), Indian Journal of Animal Sciences (304 issues), Indian Farming (72 volumes 864 issues) and Indian Horticulture (67 volumes 402 issues), Kheti (75 volumes, 900 issues), Phal Phool (43 volumes, 258 issues), that has nearly 38,550 articles available online globally in open access. The archives of other journals have a total of 2791 issues containing nearly 55,820 articles. Publication of authoritative and benchmark publications under Handbook series- Handbook of Agriculture, Handbook of Horticulture, Handbook of Animal Husbandry and Handbook of Fisheries. In all, 10,000 books, booklets, monograms etc. have been published by DKMA. Sixty one proposal for new books are in pipeline and 124 books identified as priority publications to cater the needs. Books of ICAR are very popular amongst researchers and students besides farmers. Several impressions of many books have been brought out improving the image of ICAR as a Knowledge custodian in the field of agriculture and popularity of books is visible from the reprints of books and handbooks. Handbooks are very important and most popular publications of ICARand so far more than 3.5 lakh copies have published.
The Directorate is showcasing ICAR technologies, policies and other activities through print, electronic and web mode. The editorial units help in development of content in value added information products in print, electronic and web mode. The ICAR periodicals are hosted on https://epubs.icar.org.in/. This site is connected to Google analytics that provides reports on user flow on this portal. According to the available data of last 12 years, 9.54 lakh users from 197 countries accessed this portal and top 10 countries were India, USA, Iran, China, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt and Brazil. The H factor and impact factor of ICAR research journals has improved, though not as high as was expected after shifting to online system. But with recent initiatives it is expected to increase.
DKMA has a strong social media unit assigned with the responsibility for maintenance, upgradation and development of ICAR and DARE Websites. Theses websites have been upgraded with many new components such as implementation of ERP, content development system, research data repository, e-governance and e-procurement, ICAR Telephone Directory, AGRIS Inputting, Abstracting Journals, real time feeding of information on latest research activities, News, Conferences, KisanMelas, latest publications, circulars, videos, media clippings from 113 institutes and ICAR HQ, DARE, State Agriculture Universities (SAU) and other sources. The information received are edited, images are processed and uploaded to the websites in appropriate categories in real time. All the contents are translated in Hindi and uploaded to the respective websites simultaneously. Apartment from above, the technical maintenance i.e. security updates, SSL certification etc. of both the websites are done regularly.
The publication of ICAR and DARE Annual Reports (English and Hindi separately in each case) is the important responsibility of DKMA. Collection and compilation of content a gigantic task for Annual Reports across the divisions of ICAR i.e. from the seven subject matter divisions, 113 ICAR research institutes, 73 AICRPs, General Administration, Governing cell, Finance & Accounts and concerned Ministeries is the responsibility of DKMA. The recent initiatives taken are creation of facility for working out similarity index, allotment of doI and upgradation of e-pub from 2.4 to 3.3 version. The DKMA efforts were applauded for showcasing ICAR and millets through a tableaux on the occasion of 26th January 2023. ICAR took the lead in organization of MACS G-20 meeting at Varanasi from 17-19 April, 2023 where social media division of DKMA also played major role in showcasing the events and other activities.
The Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture (DKMA) is mandated to act as the Nodal Centre of ICAR for information, communication and knowledge management related activities of the Council. The DKMA shall put all concerted efforts to maintain the tempo to bring out research journals, popular magazines, scientific monographs, technical and popular books, handbooks, low-priced books, bulletins, reports, proceedings of conferences and a variety of miscellaneous titles regularly in English and Hindi for the use of scientists, researchers, students, policy planners, extension personnel, farmers and the general public to make ICAR brand outshine.